BofA, Wells Fargo, Citigroup Left TARP Early To Avoid Restrictions On Executive Pay: Report

Alexander Eichler – September 30, 2011

In the wake of the financial crisis, a number of the nation’s largest banks were excused from the government’s rescue program before they had returned to a position of complete financial security — in part because they wanted to avoid restrictions on how much their executives would get paid, according to a new report from the program’s government overseer.

Citigroup, Wells Fargo, PNC and Bank of America successfully lobbied to leave the federal bailout program early in 2009, even though the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation had recommended they take additional steps to shore up their assets, according to a new report from the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Relief Asset Program, a government watchdog office.

(This post has been updated to include a statement by Treasury Assistant Secretary Tim Massad.)

Regulators, including the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board, eventually “relaxed” their criteria for letting the banks out of the program, the report says, leaving questions about whether the banks had strengthened their holdings enough to be able to withstand another systemic crisis.

Full article at the Huffington Post..

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